I work at shops for many years and I touch all kind of bikes, but my own where always super high end (XTR/HOPE/king headsets if they fit kind of high end) but now that I'm transporting my little kiddolina around I need a bike I can left lock up with out worry (the Klein Adept, still to nice for that), in any case I'm almost done building one and let me tell you cheap parts suck ass..

The frame is a old Kona with pretty decent tubing but far from super highend, rigid fork and quill stem to complete the package, perfect for the purpose.

Drivetrain consist of a old school Deore rear derailleur (nice and sturdy, in fact bulletproof), a LX front, old school XT cranks (I have plenty of this) and a really sucky LX rear hub with a sticky cassette body that works okay, but far from great, everything was taking apart, clean and re lube (how I know half the parts suck goat)

Okay still LX/XT 8speed but I don't really care much if get stolen, the grips will be safety wire for added safety of the handlebar component and as many torx bolts as I can find will be replacing the stock allen bolts on things like the V-brake mounts, etc.